I have searched both bug and forum content, but did locate any related information, with the keywords I coult think of. Is there any way to have collection information loaded from multiple data sources, AND control which source is used when different sources have different information?

Tellico Version 3.1.2
Fedora 27 4.18.18-100.fc27.x86_64
qt5-qtscript-5.9.6-1.fc27.x86_64
qt5-qtspeech-5.9.6-1.fc27.x86_64
qt5-qtspeech-speechd-5.9.6-1.fc27.x86_64
GNOME 3.26.2

`Update Entry` ==> `All Sources` will look through multiple sources, but I can not find any way to get notified, or control which source is used when the content does not match. The only path, which is clumsy and error prone, that I see, is to load the data from each of the data sources of interest (use search). That creates multiple entries that can then be manually compared, manually merged, then manually delete all of the duplicates. Currently working with a book collection, and doing lookup by ISBN.

Some variants on what I would `like` to do:

• Select a list of data sources to use, and have the data 'cascade'. Like CSS. Have the order of specified data sources control which will end up in the created entry.
• For each individual field, specified a priority order (cascade again) to select the preferred sources for that field.
• When fields have conflicting information, show the field name, data sources, and contents, then allow the user to manually select which source to use for that particular entry.

Is there anything that I am not seeing that allows something like this?

??Merlin wrote:I have searched both bug and forum content, but did locate any related information, with the keywords I coult think of. Is there any way to have collection information loaded from multiple data sources, AND control which source is used when different sources have different information?

Short answer is no, unfortunately. The Multiple Data Source option is asynchronous, meaning when it searches multiple sources, it takes whatever data for a field that it gets first.

??Merlin wrote:`Update Entry` ==> `All Sources` will look through multiple sources, but I can not find any way to get notified, or control which source is used when the content does not match. The only path, which is clumsy and error prone, that I see, is to load the data from each of the data sources of interest (use search). That creates multiple entries that can then be manually compared, manually merged, then manually delete all of the duplicates.

Slight variant on the painful clumsy path is to select the two entries to be merged, right-click and "Merge Entries" which steps through conflicting values asking the user to choose which to keep.

??Merlin wrote:Some variants on what I would `like` to do:

• Select a list of data sources to use, and have the data 'cascade'. Like CSS. Have the order of specified data sources control which will end up in the created entry.
• For each individual field, specified a priority order (cascade again) to select the preferred sources for that field.
• When fields have conflicting information, show the field name, data sources, and contents, then allow the user to manually select which source to use for that particular entry.

The first item is there already, except without specifying order obviously. The second seems rather complicated, using a per-field basis. The third is how the "Merge Entries" command works, so perhaps an option to use that interface for the "Multiple Data Sources" source would work for you.

robbystephenson wrote:

??Merlin wrote:…

Short answer is no, unfortunately. The Multiple Data Source option is asynchronous, meaning when it searches multiple sources, it takes whatever data for a field that it gets first.

Asynchronous. That accounts for the symptoms. And limitations.

robbystephenson wrote:

??Merlin wrote:Some variants on what I would `like` to do:

• Select a list of data sources to use, and have the data 'cascade'. Like CSS. Have the order of specified data sources control which will end up in the created entry.
• For each individual field, specified a priority order (cascade again) to select the preferred sources for that field.
• When fields have conflicting information, show the field name, data sources, and contents, then allow the user to manually select which source to use for that particular entry.

The first item is there already, except without specifying order obviously. The second seems rather complicated, using a per-field basis. The third is how the "Merge Entries" command works, so perhaps an option to use that interface for the "Multiple Data Sources" source would work for you.

I had not dug through enough to explore merge yet. Still clumsy, but less error prone than the manual edit/merge. I can work with that.

A useful addition on this path, would be to have a multiple data source `search`. To be able to create all of the entries that are then going to be merged.